The new trains and increased frequency to Stevenage are great, but hidden in page 70 of 71 is the bombshell that from May 2018 the Hertford to Stevenage services will be axed Mondays to Saturdays except for a couple of trains in the small hours of the night. The reason is lack of track capacity at Stevenage once they introduce 2 new trains an hour off-peak from Cambridge to London. The proposed solution is the most profitable one for the company as Hertford to Stevenage tickets are much cheaper than Cambridge to London. But only increasing the Cambridge trains from 4 to 5 (instead of 6) an hour would have much less impact on the public than closing the Hertford service altogether. This will make it harder to get to our hospital, cinema, and shops - and traffic will get worse with people driving to Stevenage rather than taking a 30+ minute bus journey.The consultation document and response survey is at http://www.thameslinkrailway.com/downlo ... sultation/. If you want to keep trains to Stevenage please take the time to respond

"Apart from a few early morning and late evening trains, there will be rail replacement buses on a permanent basis from Stevenage to both Hertford North and Watton-at-Stone until further notice."

Surely this isn't a replacement service, it is just a bus service?

“We have undertaken a passenger demand review and this clearly shows that the level of demand between Hertford North and Stevenage, whilst important for people who use the service regularly, is lower in comparison with the number of people who would benefit from improved Great Northern and Thameslink services which otherwise would not be able to be provided.”

So, a few extra people will benefit but those that lose out will have to double their journey time (or more).

JohnSmith wrote:"Apart from a few early morning and late evening trains, there will be rail replacement buses on a permanent basis from Stevenage to both Hertford North and Watton-at-Stone until further notice."

Surely this isn't a replacement service, it is just a bus service?

I believe that the replacement bus service is only until the new platform is built at Stevenage. Their use of the words "permanent" and "until further notice" could be a little confusing, but reflects the fact that the platform was supposed to be delivered in 2018 but now looks like 2020, or possibly - a cynic might suggest - even later. Such is the nature of infrastructure projects in this country!

Hertfordshire County Council has this week launched a petition calling on the Government to take action to accelerate the infrastructure works at Stevenage station and enable Govia Thameslink Railway to run trains between Watton-at-Stone and Stevenage after 2018.

Cabinet Member for Transport, Derrick Ashley, has also written to the Rail Minister, Paul Maynard MP, this week to express the council's "dismay" over these "totally unacceptable" proposals.

If you share our concerns please sign the council's petition, which calls on the Department for Transport to work with Network Rail to bring forward the implementation of the fifth platform and keep this important rail link in operation.